Page 69 of Home to Me

Ben nodded. “Yep. Ever since.”

“What did you do for money? Was your mom on disability?”

Ben gave a curt nod. “Some. The rest I filled in with three paper routes, a small landscaping business...even some babysitting. Whatever odd jobs people would pay me to do.

“When I was twelve, I got a gig delivering food for some local restaurants. It was good money, they paid under the table, and I got tips as well.

“By the time I was sixteen and got my license, I was making more deliveries and more tips, which was just as well, because the disability checks ran out. It became clear after just a couple of months that part-time money, even with tips, wasn’t gonna cut it. So I quit school, got my GED, and got a decent-paying job at one of the grocery stores that I had been making deliveries for. It was just a small local chain, but it was a union shop, so the salary and benefits were good. Also, my manager liked me and helped me work it around so my sister could be on my insurance. Honestly, I thought I'd work there until I retired.

“Well, imagine my surprise when the chain went out of business about a month after my eighteenth birthday. I panicked. All I could see was my family's future in the toilet because they'd had the bad judgment to depend on me. I was only eighteen. I didn't have much perspective yet or much experience rolling with career punches. As freaked out as I was then, it seems odd to look back on it now and see it as the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me.

“My manager's brother-in-law was able to get him an 'in' selling Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door, and he offered to see if he could get me on as well. Man. I hated that job with a passion, but I realized before very long that I was good with people and great at sales. One of the doors I knocked on was a real estate broker who saw my potential, and the rest is history.”

Lauren was so impressed by Ben that she wasn't even quite sure how to put her sentiments into words. Somehow, though, she sensed that he wouldn't appreciate her making a big fuss over his story, so she decided to just squeeze his hand supportively, give him a proud smile, and move on from there.

She changed the subject to one that he seemed much more eager to discuss—Brianna, the little sister he was so obviously crazy about and proud of in equal measures.

To lighten the heavy mood that had been created, Ben kept telling Lauren funny stories about Brianna as a child until they had finished eating.

As they were rinsing their plates, Lauren laughed.

“What?” Ben inquired, amused.

“You know,” she said, “I actually saw you go into your hotel room with her in Palm Springs before I knew she was your sister. Oh, man, was I mad. I was spitting nails.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” Ben said lightly, but she could hear the shift in his tone—this was a forced lightness.

“Really?” she asked him, exploring.

“Oh, sure. I mean, it must’ve felt like when you see someone...oh, I don't know...kiss a cop, for instance,” he said, not meeting her eyes.

She looked at him carefully. “Eric is just a friend,” she assured him.

Ben shrugged. “You don't owe me an explanation.”

Lauren put down the plate she was holding, reached up to the faucet, and turned off the water. Then she took the plate that Ben was holding out of his hands and set it down as well.

“Listen to me,” she said resolutely, turning him to face her. “Eric is just a friend. I promise you. We kissed at the dance, briefly, just to see if anything was there. There wasn't. End of story.”

“Nothing?” he asked, still looking worried.

“I give you my word, from the bottom of my heart, I felt nothing when I kissed him.”

Ben smiled, eyes glinting. “Do you feel anything when you kiss me?”

Lauren let a languorous smile grow on her lips. “I'm not sure,” she said in a low, husky tone. “Maybe we'd better do a test and find out.”

“Like an experiment?”

“Oh, yes. Purely for scientific purposes.”

Ben grinned wider. “Well, if it's for science...” he said and lowered his lips onto hers, kissing her gently, slipping his arms around her.

She felt something, all right. But it wasn't the sparks and fireworks she was used to feeling when Ben kissed her or touched her. This was a slow, deliberate warming that rose up from deep in her belly and spread slowly and inexorably outward, all the way to her fingertips.

This felt like lying in the sun, basking in your bathing suit on the first day after school let out—feeling that lush warmth on every inch of your skin, while inside you thrill at the knowledge that before you lies an entire summer of uncharted days filled with nothing but endless possibility.

Lauren felt that same place inside of her opening up again, a place she hadn’t been in touch with since she was a child. A place that recognized magic in the world and the idea that something could happen in an instant that could turn her life on a dime. The place that was in touch with all of the bounty the universe had to offer, and with the sly playfulness with which it usually offered it. The place that recognized joy and abundance, and accepted it without suspicion.

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